Unam hostels nearing completion

Hostels at the University of Namibia’s Medical School are nearing completion. Peter Nyarango, dean of the faculty of Health Sciences at UNAM, said the university saw it fit to provide accommodation for the students attending classes at that campus as their line of studying requires them to work at night.Nyarango said the project was delayed because as a learning institution, the university ranks accommodation as a second priority and the academic life of students as more important.Currently, 92 students are being accommodated in part of the hostel which is complete. The other hostel block which is expected to be completed by May, will accommodate 192 to 200 students. However, there will still be a shortage of 40 rooms – by next year, this shortage would have increased to 140 rooms. The hostels have 24 units which are shared by eight students per unit. “The initial plan was to finish by November this year, but the school already started taking in students and they need accommodation. Our wish is to build more hostels because next year, we will have a total of 600 students because of our two degree programmes. We also want to introduce a programme for dentistry soon,” said Nyarango.In the case of the hostels which were to be build close to the university’s main campus along Hendrik Witbooi Drive, nothing has been done. Construction of the hostels was supposed to start last year, but a disagreement between UNAM and Hanganeni, the company which was given the tender to build the hostels, brought the project to a halt.Utaara Hoveka, public relations officer at the university, said that construction will start soon and that there has been a meeting to make amendments to the agreement between Hanganeni and the institution.Construction is expected to start as soon as all the parties involved finish the legal process needed, next week.